Democrats Relent On Government Financing Bill

There is no such thing as the ‘old days’ anymore. Tools that used to help us make money do not work. Indicators that do work only last as long as the algo programmers can code it into their electronic trading program. We live in a brave new world where the computers run the ‘flow’, and if you get on the wrong side of it, you better get out fast.

While the S&P 500 futures (ESH18:CME) did gap lower Sunday night, down to 2802.00, they didn’t stay down long. By early Monday morning, the ES had up to 2812.00, a 20 handle bounce. The reaction to the three day government shutdown was muted both in the U.S and around the world.

Get The News You Want

Read market moving news with a personalized feed of stocks you care about.

Get The App

Before the S&P’s opened, the Stoxx 600 was up 0.10%, and the ES was down 0.10%. On the 8:30 bell, the ES opened at 2809.50, and by 10:20 was trading 2822.75, up 11.50 handle on the day. From there, the futures pulled back down to 2816.75 before rocketing up to the 2828.00 level, up 16.75 handles. The next pullback was down to 2822.50 at 1:25 CT.

Just before 2:00, the MiM started to show over $400 million to sell, and then $600 million to sell. The MiM ‘flipped’ to sell $187 million, and then popped up to $790 million to buy on the 2:45 cash close. During that time, the ES traded all the way up to 2838.50, up 27.5 handles, or +0.80%.

Like the title of today’s Opening Print reads, these are not our fathers markets, and if you were not around in 1987, there has never been a run up like this since. Yes, the S&P exploded to new all-time highs Monday after Senate leaders said they reached a deal to end the federal government shutdown. Yes, the yield on the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury note rose for a fourth consecutive day to 2.663%, its highest closing level since April 2014. And yes, all three indexes notched record closes, but like we always say, the S&P tends to take bad news and makes good of it. Period. The End.

You know how we have been talking about the guys with the better seats, and how it’s the ETF’s, not the mutual funds, running the show now? Well, here is a great article by the Wall Street Journal.

Yesterday there was less than 500 million shares traded on the NYSE going into the close, and 250 million traded in the last 2 minutes of the day. If you want to know what you are up against you better read this story. When the markets do ‘crash’, who will the buyers be in the ETF’s?

Originally conceived as a trading tool for institutional investors, ETFs have evolved into a democratizing force.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is scrutinizing public companies that change their name or business model in a bid to capitalize upon the hype surrounding blockchain technology, SEC Chairman Jay Clayton said. Clayton warned that it was not acceptable for companies without a meaningful track record in the sector to dabble in blockchain technology, change their name and immediately offer investors securities without providing adequate disclosures around the risks involved.

South Korea will ban the use of anonymous bank accounts in cryptocurrency trading from Jan. 30, regulators said on Tuesday in a widely telegraphed move designed to stop virtual coins from being used for money laundering and other crimes. Local cryptocurrency traders will not be allowed to make deposits into their virtual currency exchange wallets unless the names on their bank accounts matches the account name in cryptocurrency exchanges. European Union will follow South Korea and China on cryptocurrency regulation.

Bitcoin Real Time Index is -3.5% today, nearing short term key support of 9950 area.

If this breaks we look for the 100dma again and the top of the gap to be pivotal.